The Nats try to salvage a series split and increase their NL East lead to 3 1/2 games.

What was the significance of last night's 5-2 win over the Braves? Well, instead of showing up at the park today in danger of getting swept and losing first place in the NL East for the first time in two months, the Nationals know they have an opportunity to salvage a split and get their lead back to 3 1/2 games, where it was when this series opened on Friday. Pretty big difference.

The Nationals will attempt to do that without Ian Desmond or Jesus Flores in their lineup. Desmond's oblique strain acted up again during last night's game, so he's getting a rest. For now, the team doesn't believe the injury is getting worse or that a DL stint is going to become a possibility — "I don't really want to go there," Davey Johnson said this morning. Flores, meanwhile, still is bothered by a stiff back, so Sandy Leon gets another start behind the plate.

Bryce Harper, on the other hand, is back in the lineup, fighting through a bruised left ankle after fouling a bunt off himself during yesterday's opener. He certainly looked fine coming off the bench during last night's win.

The skies appear to actually be clearing up after a long weekend of rain and gray. Plenty of updates to come, so please check back…

The good thing about a split with the Braves, of course, is that while the Braves leave town with the same deficit (3.5), they now have four fewer games to make it up. Yeah, it's a marathon and not a sprint, and we're not even up to August, but still, we've knocked four games off the magic number over four games. I.e., a split here favors the Nats

Yowsa! How nice to win this game without all the fear and ignorance that has been spewed out the past couple of days! We are in first place. We have the best record in the NL.We go to the Mets with pretty, pretty, pretty good pitching matchups, and a reasonably rested bullpen.I like it!

Someone explain to me the "fans" who only show up here when things are going bad so they can complain about, well, EVERYTHINGIf they hate the Nats so much, why do they follow at all? Do they every actually enjoy the good stuff?